The Political Interest: Searching for Cuba Libre

Searching for Cuba Libre

Since the Bay of Pigs, Cuban Americans have dreamed of dancing on Fidel Castro's grave. They believe in their bones that nothing good will come in Cuba while Castro lives. But all that may soon be history. A week before the Bush-Gorbachev summit, a meeting of far greater significance for Latin America took place in Miami. For the first time in public, Soviet diplomats (including Yuri Pavlov, the Kremlin's leading Latinist) met with Cuban-American leaders. "We are accommodating political reality," says a Soviet official. "Bush will remain hostile toward Castro until the Cuban-American community blesses a change."